Owyhee: Unusual Name, Beautiful Area

 

One of the peaceful creeks found at Owyhee, Nevada

   Located about 350 miles north of Fallon via U.S.95, Interstate 80 and Nevada State Route 225 (north of Elko), the tiny community of Owyhee, on the Nevada-Idaho border, is about as remote a place as one can find in the Silver State.

   With a population of nearly 1,000, Owyhee (known as Un Kwahain in Shoshoni) serves as one of the largest communities in the sprawling Shoshone-Paiute Duck Valley Indian Reservation, covers nearly 300,000 acres.

   The town’s unusual name, Owyhee, does not have Shoshone or Paiute origins but can be traced to the early white trappers who, in about 1820, called the Owyhee River, which today runs through the settlement, the Sandwich Island River.

   The name was to honor a trio of native Hawaiian trappers who were killed at the river’s mouth during an encounter with the native Bannock people. After the Sandwich Islands became more widely known as the Hawaiian Islands, the name of the river changed as well, but was phonetically corrupted to Owyhee.

   In 1863, the Western Shoshone chiefs and the governors of the Nevada and Utah territories signed the Treaty of Ruby Valley, which sought to cease hostilities between the Shoshone and white settlers in northern Nevada and allow for development of the lands in the region.

   In the years after the signing of the treaty, the tribe began requesting land be set aside for its needs, which had been promised. It wasn’t until 1877, however, that President Rutherford B. Hayes finally signed an order granting land for a reservation.

   The town of Owyhee was founded around the time the reservation was established.

   Sadly, that was not the end of the tribe’s difficulties with government representatives. In the late 1870s, the agent for the Western Shoshone Agency, a white man, stole goods intended for the Shoshone, a practice that continued until he was replaced in 1882. During his tenure, many Shoshone departed the reservation due to the harsh conditions.

   In 1884, there was a move to force the Shoshone to relocate to Fort Hall in the Idaho Territory but that effort failed.

   In 1886, the government reversed itself and the reservation size was expanded by President Grover Cleveland to accommodate the Northern Paiute tribe. The reservation was expanded again in 1910 by President William Howard Taft.

   As for the town of Owyhee, it became a thriving agricultural community (which it remains today) and gained its first substantial building in 1881, when a schoolhouse was erected. Additionally, that year a stage line was established that connected the town to Elko.

   By 1886, the town gained a newspaper, the Duck Valley News, which, unfortunately closed after one month. But the community continued to grow and by the mid-1890s, it had about 600 residents as well as a physician and a small infirmary.

   In the early 20th century, Owyhee saw the arrival of telephone service (in 1904), a new school (also in 1904), and a hospital (in 1914). 

   Toward the end of the 1930s, a handful of native volcanic stone buildings (resembling the ones built at the Stewart Indian School in Carson City) were erected in the town, including a new hospital, a powerhouse, a tribal gym, and a tribal court building. Many of these structures can still be seen in the community, although not all remain in use.

   Perhaps the biggest development to benefit Owyhee in the post-Depression years was the construction of the Wild Horse Dam, about 32 miles to the south, which, since then, has provided a reliable water source for the Duck Valley’s residents, cattle (but watch out for them, however, they will wander in front of you on the highway!) and agriculture.

   Today, Owyhee is a sleepy town located about 100 miles north of Elko that boasts limited services and a handful of the picturesque native stone buildings erected in the late 1930s. One of the most impressive is the former hospital building, built in 1937, which boasted two seven-bed wards. It closed in 1976, when a new community health facility opened.

   If you pull off the highway south of the town, you can also find several beautiful, creek-fed meadows. Sitting beside one these ribbons of water can be a peaceful respite on a long journey.

   For more information about Owyhee, go to www.shopaitribes.org/spt/.